Getting back on our feet and Tutoring for my son

Today I heard my son do simple math, 4+5, without prompting or leading after 18 years of raising him as his only parent. It felt like a miracle. This fund is to continue his progress since he is finally able to make real progress and keep a roof over his head in these exceptionally trying times. I’m pledging to aid another who would complement the Salesforce community each year to help become a Salesforce Administrator to improve their livelihood. I’ve also begun creating unmanaged package apps for free to enrich the experience of others seeking to follow the road I did as well as to be available for other Admins. This includes creating Lightning Web Components to be free for others to use. I want to give back, and I need help to keep things afloat while I find work. So, this is me asking for aid while pledging to give as I meant to do so after learning Lightning Web Components. This is the story of how I got here. Salesforce changed my entire life. It broke the cycle. Now we're in danger of falling backward after getting so close to being self-sufficient.

Speaking about my son and my past is always difficult. Even writing it finds me in tears just this far in. He was born missing some of his DNA, or ‘Partial Deletion of the Tenth Chromosome’, as it was called by the geneticist. His missing genetics were unmapped. Then he gave me unsettling news. Throughout my son’s childhood, it would blossom into PTSD I still struggle with today. One day something critical in his body could just stop working as he hit puberty just as easily as adult genes could take over to find him quickly hurdling his shortcomings. Thus began my journey of tested patience and love in ways I never could have expected.

Almost seven years to use stairs without aid, nine years to potty train, ten years to dress himself, twelve years to bathe himself, and eighteen years to finally hear him read a Frog and Toad short story. I got to hear my son read after eighteen years! Just writing this has me sobbing and shaking at the reality of just how much has happened.

It was a miracle the courts gave me primary parental rights over him. Getting them as a father is a nightmare. Seeing him come home looking drugged with human bite marks, burned ends of gloves, and scratches all over his arms was so hard to face and acknowledge it was real. Eventually I had to even go to the courts to have time reduced further to public places. Doing this knowing your son wants so badly to see his mother as any child would, who can barely speak a few words only the closest in his life could understand, was heartbreaking and shattering over and over each day without letting up or mercy.

Along the way, we had some truly unfortunate turns in our lives. There are things a child should never have to see his father go through because he’s unwilling to hit a woman back. We’ve been through a lot.

As he continued to grow mentally and emotionally, I found myself able to pursue professional work again after over ten years of giving up any hope of a career to care for his needs. While seeking employment as a data analyst I was pointed toward a company I’d never heard of. It was called Salesforce, and their training site held no cost. As I ventured into it, I found my calling. Never had I found anything which made so much sense to me by instinct and intellect alike. Best of all, those who can do the work were paid well enough to give my son the kind of care and tutoring which could change his life.

Realizing this led to my taking the proctored Administrator exam just three weeks after learning the company existed. Neither bedridden illness nor despair stopped me.

Through willpower and determination, I fought tooth and nail to keep my spirits and health going while dealing with poverty, misleading landlords to whom city employees shut down the property when shown the unlawful health conditions, and holes in floors other landlords cut into the property to mold infested crawlspaces making my family consistently sick enough my son once missed three weeks of school in a row from coughing and build up in his ears. Then I found out the city of my last home didn’t even have a local residential code for renters to request a fire inspector. This was the same home the gas line home intake became a pillar of flame right outside the window where I was sleeping. I watched the flame leap over the roof while trying to stay warm with my family in the car listening to the drunk neighbors yell and threaten one another. There have been so many tears.

I still pushed forward when the home I tried to obtain turned out to be full of mold in the basement with illegally set up water pumps which flooded the basement, where all the ducts lay on the concrete floor never put together and animals found their way into from outside ducts.

Now that we’re in a good clean home, I find us at risk of losing it all. A contract fell through I was counting on. This trade has given me the self-confidence and awareness to realize I had PTSD to begin with, and I gathered the courage it took to see a counselor and start taking control of my life again. The community around Salesforce gave me hope and dreams for the first time in long enough that I don’t remember what they were earlier in my life. Right now, though, I’m worried about my son continuing at the High School he’s done so well with in their special education classrooms. I want to see him get tutoring while he’s finally starting to make progress in learning. In the future, I can take care of it, but I need to not lose our home and see him get the tutoring while he’s making such incredible leaps.

So I’m asking for help. I could take hybrid jobs in the area if I had a reliable cheap used car. I could work from home if I just kept a roof over our heads. If I could just keep us from ending up in another place where we get sick all the time, I could push forward instead of falling back into the hole. I don’t want to fall back into the hole with others as I have done time and time again. I want to climb up and help others climb up with me. It’s been my dream to help others climb up, and I’m so close to it.

These funds will be used to keep our home, to get tutoring for my son as he suddenly grows more capable of learning, and to become self-sufficient with a vehicle. Please believe in us. We're so close to being able to contribute to bettering society.